20th Horse Progress Days Featurs Equipment Big, Small

20th Horse Progress Days Featurs Equipment Big Small LIVESTOCK Horses/Mules Attention grabbers at this summer’s Horse Progress Days HPD included everything from a 1-horse backpack sprayer to a 12-horse hitch on a 15-ft wide tillage tool If you can imagine a modern farming tool pulled by horses you’ll likely see it at the show “Not even the avant-garde founders of this great event envisioned Horse Progress Days 20 years later Or that it would become one of the largest agricultural gatherings in the country or what it would come to involve ” reported Lynn Telleen editor/publisher The Draft Horse Journal Telleen’s father Maury founder of the Journal was a cofounder of the event Certainly he didn’t imagine nearly 14 000 attendees much less the type and size of equipment adapted to horsepower In fact the last living co-founder of HPD Floyd Bontrager told Telleen “I recall before HPD started People were worried about all of the old horse-drawn equipment disappearing They were worried about what we were going to do when it was gone Now there’s more new equipment than ever before ” Here are a few of the new and modified “grabbers” that got our attention Our thanks to The Draft Horse Journal www drafthorsejournal com : A CAT Challenger inline small square baler delivers bales to a Kuhns bale accumulator with the aid of a power forecart and 4 Belgians Evolving engine-equipped forecarts have revolutionized equipment availability since the show started An annual highlight of HPD has been a 12-horse hitch pulling this 4-bottom Oliver plow Floyd Bontrager the only living HPD co-founder first brought it to the event in 1995 It ues the McKinnon Hitch or rope and pulley system introduced at the first HPD by White Horse Machine This year the company introduced a new type of evener to the hitch that produces less side draft in heavy soils A unique 12-horse hitch with 6 across the front and 6 across the rear provides power for a 15-ft Smart-Till from HCC Mendota Ill Four Belgians pull this double arm wheel rake from Master Equipment Battery-powered hydraulics on the Pioneer forecart adjust the rake arms The Eberspray’r is a true horse-backpack sprayer Mounted to this Percheron mare it includes a 15-gal tank electric pump battery aluminum frame and reversible boom Designed for organic crops it delivers 10 gal /hr across four 30-in rows

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